Still Lives in My Heart
by Lyrik Proz
Summary: Luke Skywalker, retired jedi grand master, has granted an interview to a young student before he joins his beloved Mara and becomes one with the Force.


**Still Lives in My Heart**

_I often have wandered in deep contemplation  
It seems that the mind runs wild when you're all alone  
The way that it could be  
The way that it should be  
Things I'd do differently if I could do them again_

Sixteen-year-old Darion Greene checked in his pocket for the umpteen-hundredth time to make sure his datapad was still there. Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, he pushed the button that triggered the doorbell. 

An elderly man, stooped with age, slowly opened the door and peered at the youth, almost at eye level. "You must be Mr. Greene," he stated as he beckoned him inside.

_This cannot be** him**_, the teenager thought as he followed the almost frail form of the man, _surely he wouldn't answer his own door. He'd have a serving droid or something wouldn't he? Jedi don't age this badly either._ "Yes, sir, but please call me Darion."

Once they sat down, Darion had a hard time meeting the frank gaze of the jedi master. "That face you make… Look so old I do to young eyes?"

"No, of course not!" _He looks like he could be nine hundred years old._

"Yes, I do. Old and frail I have become." The pale blue eyes of the master, sparkling with quiet amusement, continued to regard his guest. "When nine hundred years you reach, look as good _you_ will not!"

"You're really nine-hundred-years old?" Darion gasped in surprise.

The retired grandmaster chuckled as he shook his head. "No, I'm only one hundred and three, but sometimes I feel nine hundred." He sighed softly before he added in a weary voice, "I feel that more often than not, truth be told." After a brief silence, he stated. "You didn't come here to ask my age though."

Remembering his datapad, the youth took it from his pocket. "No, sir." He had sent the jedi grandmaster a correspondence asking to interview him for his term paper. He felt honored that of all the professional news reporters that had tried and failed to get an interview with the famed Luke Skywalker, the elderly jedi agreed to be interviewed by _him_, a high school student.

During the interview, Darion was impressed by how truly humble the man before him was. 

When he questioned Master Skywalker about that, the jedi smiled gently, "I may have power through the force, but I am just one man. I did nothing without the help of others… I would be dead ten times over without my friends and loved ones." The master leaned forward to look intently at the student. "Have you ever heard of Klent Ciarno?"

Frowning, Darion racked his brain, but could not remember anything in all his studies about such a person... _or is it a place?_ He finally shook his head in defeat as he admitted, "No sir, I haven't."

"He was about your age during the Yuuzhan Vong War. In spite of the fact that his parents and most of the inhabitants of his planet hated jedi and would just as soon turn one over to the peace brigade, he gave a thirsty knight a drink of water."

The boy sat silently, expecting more to the story.

Luke smiled. "Klent could have been hurt or even killed if caught, and he knew it, but did what he felt was right. It may have seemed a tiny thing in the grand scale of things, but it was significant to the knight. He was as much a hero as me or Generals Wedge Antilles or Han Solo, but you'll never see his name in the history books."

Darion nodded in understanding. After several other questions, one remained. "Sir, if there were one thing you could do differently, what would it be?"

The old knight gave a patient smile. "The jedi don't dwell on 'what might have beens'." When the boy sat there quietly with an expectant expression upon his face, Luke realized he was not going to give up that line of questioning. "I'd tell Mara more often that I love her while she was alive."

Looking up at Luke in surprise, he wondered if the Grand Master was either pulling his leg or trying to cover up how he really felt.

"You expected another answer."

"Well, yes sir, I thought perhaps it would be more along the lines of preventing your nephew from plunging the galaxy into the oppression from which you freed it when you killed Emperor Palpatine."

"Actually, my father killed the emperor. I just watched." Luke's eyes held a glimmer of humor.

"Well, yeah, but you did kill Jacen Solo."

The humor left the jedi's eyes, replaced by deep sorrow. His voice was soft as he corrected Darion once more. "I killed Darth Cadeus. The Jacen who was my beloved nephew no longer existed by the time I had to cut down his body."

"I… I'm sorry, sir."

A smile that did not reach his eyes played upon Luke's lips. "There is nothing to be sorry about. Your question is a good one. If I [iknew[/i Jacen were in danger of going to the dark side… that he would become what his mother and I fought so hard to eradicate, then I would have tried to guide him away from that. Jacen made his own decision though, and none of us realized until it was too late, what was going on."

_I've always loved springtime, the passing of winter  
The green of the new leaves and life goin' on  
The promise of morning  
The long days of summer  
Warm nights of loving her beneath the bright stars._

Darion was silent a moment. He did not wish to end this interview on a bitter note. "What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?"

Luke smiled brightly and answered without hesitation. "Marrying Mara and fathering my son with her."

Again, Darion was surprised by the answer. "But, it was your shot that destroyed the first Death Star. You influenced your father to kill Emperor Palpatine. You rebuilt the Jedi Order… twice."

"I could not have done any of that without help. I serve the Force, which flows through all living things. There can be no greater accomplishment than bringing new life into the world with someone you love." Luke laughed at the expression on the boy's face. "Yeah, Mara would tease me unmercifully for being so mushy. But then, it is Sweethearts' Day, so I can hardly be faulted for thinking of her, now can I?"

_I'm just an old cowboy from high Colorado  
Too old to ride any more, too blind to see  
I sleep in the city now  
Away from the mountains  
Away from the cabin we always called home._

After Darion left, Luke sighed tiredly. He went to wash up in the refresher. Peering in the mirror, he smiled slightly. "Yoda was right. I'm not even nine-hundred, and I don't look as good." Chuckling he turned away and made his way into the bedroom.

He moaned as he lowered himself onto his bed and was asleep as soon as his head rested upon the pillow.

_I dream I left there  
On an old palomino  
Whispering Jesse rode right by my side  
I long to hold her  
To hear her soft breathing  
The touch of her cool hands on my fevered brow._

Perhaps it was because of the interview he had with the young student, Luke dreamed of flying in his old x-wing for the first time in years. In this dream, he had no mission, and he was flying alone.

_Where to now_, he wondered.

"Follow me, Farmboy." Mara's amused voice suddenly came over the radio.

He looked to the side, and saw out his cockpit a green and white x-wing beside his. Mara grinned wickedly at his surprised expression, her red hair flowed behind her as though there were a fan in her cockpit.

"Don't let my afterburners roast you." She teased as she pushed the boosters, and her ship quickly pulled ahead.

He was going to ask her where he was taking him, but did not wish to interrupt the sound of her soft breathing within his ears. Besides that, he saw a light up ahead and instinctually knew that was where they were headed. He knew that soon he would be able to hold her in his arms and feel her fingers upon his brow.

_Whispering Jesse still rides in the mountains  
Still sings in the canyons  
Still lives in my heart._

"Grandpa?" A blonde head peered into the elderly knight's room. The youngling whom the light tresses belong to gasped as she saw the robes of her grandfather lying on the bed. "Father," she called out anxiously, "come here, this is weird!"

It was not long before Ben Skywalker stood behind his daughter, placing his hands gently upon her shoulder. "He's one with the force now, kitling."

Looking up at her father, she smiled. "And with grandma finally, right?"

With a small smile that was sad and rejoicing in kind, he nodded. "That's right, sweetheart."

_THE END_


End file.
